Stiffness heterogeneity of small viral capsids
Abstract
Nanoindentation of viral capsids provides an efficient tool in order to probe their elastic properties. We investigate in the present work the various sources of stiffness heterogeneity as observed in Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) experiments. By combining experimental results with both numerical and analytical modeling, we first show that for small viruses a position-dependent stiffness is observed. This effect is strong and has not been properly taken into account previously. Moreover, we show that a geometrical model is able to reproduce this effect quantitatively. Our work suggests alternative ways of measuring stiffness heterogeneities on small viral capsids. This is illustrated on two different viral capsids: Adeno Associated Virus serotype 8 (AAV8) and Hepatitis B Virus (HBV with T=4). We discuss our results in the light of continuous elasticity modeling.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2110.03941,
title = {Stiffness heterogeneity of small viral capsids},
author = {Lucas Menou and Yeraldinne Carrasco-Salas and Lauriane Lecoq and Anna Salvetti and Cendrine Faivre-Moskalenko and Martin Castelnovo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2110.03941},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
Physical Review E , American Physical Society (APS), In press